Brittany Cameron from Peterborough receives the June Callwood Award for her activism

Brittany Cameron of Peterborough has won a June Callwood Outstanding Achievement Award for her activism for the rights of women and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Established in 1994 to recognize volunteers and organizations across Ontario, the June Callwood Award is presented annually to 20 recipients who have made outstanding contributions to their community and province. Cameron was one of 15 winners in the Individual Outstanding Volunteer category.

“I was shocked and very honored. You don’t volunteer to receive awards, but it’s definitely nice when your work is seen,” Cameron said. “It also gives me an opportunity to speak to the media and share more about what it means to be a woman living with HIV in a small community like Peterborough.”

Cameron was diagnosed with HIV 17 years ago when she was 36 weeks pregnant and the experience changed her life.

“I got involved with the Peterborough AIDS Resource Network (PARN) first as a client, then as a volunteer, then as a staff member,” she said. “Through this program, I’ve been able to get involved in other AIDS ministries not only locally, but also at the provincial and federal levels.”

Cameron joined 360 Nurse Practitioners Clinic in Peterborough in 2020, shortly after beginning work with the Canadian Positive People’s Network, a national group for and by people living with HIV/AIDS.

“The Canadian Positive People’s Network was formed about six years ago,” Cameron said. “Their goal is to unite people living with HIV across Canada and ensure our voices are heard and our needs met.”

She became a board member of the organization in 2019 after falling behind with donors.

“They had been paid $900,000 to work for five years. But the people running the agency back then weren’t running it properly,” Cameron said. “That’s when I decided to get involved as a board member.”

The organization is thriving again, she said, after five more years of funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

“I am the people we serve,” Cameron said. “I am the people we represent.”

Focusing particularly on women living with HIV, Cameron explains that they are often underrepresented in discussions. This led to her creating a project called Women Speak, which aims to give a voice to the previously unheard community.

“Women living with HIV are often under-represented, under-resourced or under-researched,” she said. “So we came together to create this platform, to connect and to give us a common voice.”

Cameron said it’s one of the main reasons she’s being open about her diagnosis and working to raise awareness about HIV.

“There are an estimated 1,400 people living with HIV in the Peterborough area, many of them women,” she said. “But they are not connected to services and are not properly supported.”

Harm reduction for IV substance users is another vulnerable demographic that’s often misunderstood and overlooked, she said. Needle exchange programs first emerged in the early 1990s as a result of HIV and were intended to help reduce transmission, she said.

“As an HIV-positive person, I believe that sharing naloxone and needles is an important part of harm reduction,” Cameron said. “For me, it’s very frustrating at times when the general public doesn’t understand why we’re providing safe supplies to people.”

Prior to June’s Callwood Awards, Cameron received multiple awards and honors from 2014 to 2022. She has also given more than a dozen presentations on women’s rights and HIV/AIDS.

“My core values ​​are connectedness and community. When I’m in the service of my community, I thrive,” Cameron said. “Like I said, I’m never looking for an award. For me it’s really about serving and putting on a friendly face.”

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